PLANNING FOR A SUSTAINABLE EUROPE? - TU Berlin

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By contrast, the DG Regio information brochure “ISPA in a nutshell” presents an
interpretation which much more clearly privileges investments in the Helsinki corridors:
ISPA co-finances projects in the major road and rail corridors in the candidate
countries, identified at the Helsinki and Crete Conferences, including connections
between national networks and links to the Trans-European transport Networks within
the Union. 18
Meanwhile, the EU delegation in Hungary provides the interested public with an
even more creative interpretation. On their official website, they explain the ISPA
criteria as follows:
In the case of transport projects under ISPA, they must be an extension of a TEN
network, one of the priority corridors which the Commission is recommending, or an
access road to such a network. 19
So access roads suddenly receive a particular mention, but nothing is said about
either road or rail projects being eligible because they increase the interconnectivity of
national networks. This much more restrictive interpretation is particularly interesting in
light of the fact that the EU delegation website for Hungary, which is also available in
Hungarian, is likely to be the first and perhaps even only source of information consulted
by Hungarian stakeholders interested in ISPA eligibility criteria.
Projects that encourage sustainable forms of moving people and goods, in particular projects which are
of Community interest, and project which enable the countries concerned to meet the objectives of the
Accession Partnerships. This will include providing good connections between the Trans-European
transport networks and road and rail corridors (identified at the Helsinki and Crete Conference [sic]) in
the applicant countries and interconnections between national networks and links from them to the
Trans-European transport Networks.
On the website of the EU Delegation in Poland this reads as follows:
The investments in the field of transport infrastructure should encourage sustainable forms of mobility
and compose of projects which are of general interest on the basis of the Decision's No. 1692/96/WE
criteria and projects which will provide good interconnections between national networks and links
from them to the trans-European transport networks.
See http://www.europa.delpol.pl/english/podstrona.php?url=/english/III/3.php, accessed Aug 22 nd , 2002
18 CEC [, 2002b #1526], also see http://europa.eu.int/comm/regional_policy/funds/ispa/pdf/nutsh6.pdf . It
should also be noted previous editions of this two-page brochure in 2001used identical phrasing.
19 See http://www.eudelegation.hu/delegacio/elocsatlakozas_ispa_en.html, accessed on Aug 22 nd , 2002